Hair-care haven

Baltimore makes the cut for celebrity stylist Jonathan Antin

Inspirations

Celebrity hairdresser Jonathan Antin, star of Blow Out, the hit reality TV show on Bravo, has had a rough night. It's the day after the Academy Awards, and, yes, he styled a few celebrities.

"But yesterday for me was a little bit more about the executives," he confides. "Do I want to do movie stars or the people who give them jobs? You can say I did some of the most powerful people in Hollywood."

Not that he's mentioning any names. In the past he's worked with Madonna, Kiefer Sutherland, Kirsten Dunst, Alicia Silverstone and Tobey Maguire. "But I usually don't cut and tell."

In spite of his fatigue, he takes a few minutes to talk by phone from Beverly Hills about his hair-care line, Jonathan Product. It's made in the Baltimore area by C-Care, a contract manufacturer of skin and hair-care lines. Jonathan Product was launched last year and, with the help of major face time on the show and on QVC, is now a top-selling luxury brand.

Antin, a Los Angeles native, discovered Baltimore through his older brother Steve, who created the short-lived, Baltimore-based series Young Americans. The hairdresser flew in to style the stars, most notably Kate Bosworth, for the pilot. He then became best friends, he says, with one of the actors, Baltimorean Rodney Scott.

What could be more natural than when Antin started looking for a place to manufacture his products, he looked no farther than Linthicum Heights?

"I'm always under a magnifying glass in L.A.," he says. "When I come to Baltimore I can wear T-shirts and jeans. The movie star thing doesn't matter so much. ... And I'm a Terps fan."

The hair-care line started with 15 products, all sulfate-free, containing purified, de-ionized, "botanically infused" water, as his business partner Tina Hedges puts it. They are also vegan and, whenever possible, wheat-free, which may not matter unless you have a wheat or dairy allergy. (No, you don't drink the stuff.)

These aren't just the usual shampoos and styling gels. There's Dirt, for instance, a styling aid that gives you the look of hair the day after it's been shampooed, and Redo, a "botanical mist" for hair and skin.

Jonathan Product ($18-$95) is sold at Sephora in Columbia, select Bath & Body Works and Victoria's Secret stores, Barneys New York, QVC and Beauty.com.

Although no one's saying for sure, there's a good chance Baltimore will get more air time in the show's third season, which has its season premiere on Bravo at 9 p.m. Tuesday.